Hubby is having a little trouble right now. Because I am an evil, evil wife who asked him to do yardwork.
I’ve been going to Mom’s each Saturday and helping her can tomatoes. So Saturday before last, I asked Hubby to clean up the yard. I came in and he had a big black splinter in his forearm and another one in his calf. I picked them out and treated them.
After 4 days, he began having the weirdest rash on his torso.
Those weren’t splinters… :eek: Spider bites! – and a slowly developing systemic reaction to Ivy. Not poison ivy, but “IVY” ivy. (I double checked - the only thing he worked on was rose bushes, under box hedges, and ivy I had planted, which was taking over the flower bed.) Doc-in-the-box on Friday – regular doctor on Monday (when his lips began to swell). Doc said it wasn’t a common reaction and was slow progressing, which is why it took so long to pin it down.
So now Hubby is on Augmentin, prednisone, and various antihistamines and creams. <sigh> He should be fine in a couple of weeks – Doctor says the bite on his leg is deeper than the one on his are and it may takes months to heal, but there shouldn’t be any other reactions to it.
I should have caught it sooner, dang it. I’ve seen bites before – but they really didn’t look like the bull’s eye spider bites until Friday. And the rash? It kinda looked like poison oak - But it’s thousands of blisters were all over (including unexposed skin) and there was NO itching. And the blisters were larger and tan colored rather than tiny and red. And I never used any precautions when touching the rash, but I’ve had no reation whatsoever.
I am forever damned if I can figure out how a big-ass “Arachnophobia”, dinner-plate size, you can hear the fcker stomping across the yard damn SPIDER that is big enough to leave fangs that look like FOOKING SPLINTERS hanging out of your (by now) necrotic, dessicated, and/or putrefied flesh can simply saunter out of the tall weeds, wander up your leg and snack on various tasty bits of man-flesh without engendering ANY attention what-so-fcking-EVER!
This is my Brother-in-Law we are talking about here and he can be a bit… zoned out at times… but I think I woulda noticed if a spider the size of Mothra crawled outta the ruins of Tokyo and started chasing me across the yard…
Now what can you expect from a man who’s alleric to IVY!
Now I love my Hubby something fierce, but knowing him, he probably thought the spider-from-hell was a kitten and went to pet it. The man has 5 post-graduated degrees, but he does not have a firm grasp on reality. So we’re PERFECT for each other!
The bite on his arm has a small, dead spot (about 1 mm) and the circle has dulled from a fierce red/brown to a dark mauve. Kinda like a birthmark. The bite on his leg is still ooky and blistery and angry red/black. :eek: The rash on his torso (armpit to groin, midline to arm) is now a deep mauve and is beginning to shrink slightly.
Lotsa side-effects from the myriad of drugs, but not too bad. All in all, he was amazingly lucky and is doing much MUCH better. (But I am calling Orkin or Terminex to come catch any other kitten-spiders there might be!!!)
